Hilton Honors Ambassador

Hi all,

We’re making it a little easier for our Silver, Gold and Diamond members to see how many Points they need when booking a Standard Room Reward stay for five nights or more. As many of you know, when you used to book a reward stay of five nights or more, the 5th Night Free benefit was shown as a discount to Standard Room Reward stays of 5 or more nights. The total discount was equal to the average nightly Point price for the stay dates and was then divided across all nights of the stay.

Going forward, Elite members will now see every 5th night of a Standard Room Reward stay will now be discounted to 0 Points, up to 4 free nights per stay. All other nights of the stay will be charged the applicable full Standard Room Reward price.

The T&Cs will be reflective of this change starting September 27, 2017, and wanted to give you all a head’s up!

Thanks!

jacobguo

Welcome back!

So, assuming the rates for each night are: 62,000 for nights 1-4 and 32,000 for night 5.

Before the change I would be paying: (62,000*4+32,000)*(4/5)=224,000 pts.
After the change I would be paying: (62000*4)=248,000 pts?

Coathanger

I’d also like clarification if this would work in the reverse, where the most expensive night is the 5th night.

Fanjet

Same here. When they went to dynamic pricing. Some hotels I stay at, the point variance is several thousand points, depending on the day of the week. Like 20K points on weedays, 13K points on weekend nights.

Animator

So, after a short testing, I can confirm that now it both are the case

From now you should play with your dates to get your 5th night to be the most expensive one.

Also, now you will certanly lose even in the case of equal price for all nights. For example, if all 5 nigths are 19K, yesterday it was 15K*5 nights for 75K total. Now it is 19K*4 that is 76K total.

Fanjet

That works great if one's schedule is extremely flexible. No. I think it's the same; 76K points total. The old system was 76K points (19K X 4). And 76K divided by 5 is 15.2K points per night, not 15K.

Tokyoite

Hope it still remains 5 nights credit !

Mileometer

Hi all

I'm certainly no expert in the system you guys clearly know very well but if I'm reading a change in the T&Cs right the 5th night free benefit has just taken a hit.

Two main changes:

1 - The value of the 5th night is no longer calculated using an average - it's just set at zero.
2 - The points cost of the remaining nights is then raised to what Hilton calls the "full Standard Room Reward price" before being added together to give you the cost of the 5 night award.

I've done a quick example calculation on my blog here to illustrate how this can change things (mods please remove the link if you don't think it's helpful).

All thoughts very welcome - am I reading this right?

Link to the T&Cs with new wording

jzafar

Wow! Have you had a chance to check other properties to see if they raise the other nights to maximum nightly point rate?

Mileometer

Just added the Capital Hotel DC to the blog as an example - same thing appears to be happening. This time a 26%+ increase in cost of a 5 night award.

KENNECTED

@Mileometer Latest Update to T&Cs: 5th Night Free

rrgg

The old calculation seems easier. I don't know why you're pretending it's not.

flyou10

I get why they switched to it. You want your customers to know when they're getting the benefit. I am sure there are a lot of people that don't pay attention to all the benefits, so when they book a 5 night stay and see 40k/night, they don't realize that's a 5th night free.
However, if you see the 30k/night with the 5th night at 0k, then you realize you're getting something.

Another example that actually happens to me (rarely). I have used the digital check-in and gotten a better room than what I reserved (again, rare). However, it just showed up as another option. If Hilton was smart they would show that as select this room, complimentary upgrade! Good marketing, if you're giving something away, make sure people know they're actually getting it.

That all said. It will become a big disappointment if it isn't the most expensive night, or still an averaged night free.

Mileometer

Thanks for the link, I hadn't seen that....although I'm not sure that discussion fully shows how bad this actually is.

Based on the wording of the T&Cs and my calculations, even if the 5th night of the stay is the most expensive night (and gets reduced to zero) the overall cost of the award will still be more expensive under the new system because all the other nights have been bumped up in cost.

Or am I missing something?

rrgg

If that's all they want, they could display the final prices as before, plus add a line with the original price and a strike through the lettering. Then customers know the discount. Or add a line, "Bonus night free benefit saves you XXX points today."